Ramesh Ponnuru's Latest Column: "Obama Scandals Could Actually Hurt Republicans"

While I admit I lean left, I make an effort to read Conservative writings on a regular basis and I've developed a sort of "go to" list of writers to keep tabs on. Reihan Salam, David Brooks, David Frum tend to be my mainstays but a column by National Review's Senior Editor, Ramesh Ponnuru caught my eye today.

The column, "Obama Scandals Could Actually Hurt Republicans" looks at how historically the GOP has over-played its hand when the Democrats have a scandal to deal with.

An excerpt:

The biggest danger for Republicans in giving themselves over to scandal mania is one that the conventional retelling of the Clinton impeachment neglects. Republicans didn’t lose seats simply because they overreached on Clinton’s perjury. It is true that his impeachment was unpopular, and public approval of the Republicans sank as they pursued it. Still, only 5 percent of voters in the 1998 election told exit pollsters that the scandal had played a role in their decision, and Republicans got a majority of those voters.

Social Security was the top issue for more than twice as many voters, and Republicans lost that issue by 18 percentage points. Even more voters cared about education, which Republicans lost by 34 points. They lost on health care and the economy by similar margins.

Its fairly short, takes less than five minutes to read it, which I encourage you to do...

Source: 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-20/-obama-scandals-could-actually-hurt-republicans.html